The results of my learning style inventory were very predictable.  My dominant style was in Sensing Feeling with a score of 89 and my subdominant was intuition feeling with a score of 74.  My tertiary and inferior learning styles were intuition thinking with a score of 43 and sensing thinking with a score of 20.

     When I began the required reading I was not aware I was going to participate in an exercise determining the strengths and weaknesses of my learning style.  As I read the description of each learning style I was relating them to myself, trying to determine which style portrayed my personality. The first group described in the reading was the Mastery Learners.  As I read the description I thought, "This could not be more opposite to my personality".  My preferred learning environment is an expressive and flexible one with the focus on discussion and creativity.  This is unlike the Sensing-thinker who tends to prefer a structured environment with a focus on mastery of skills (Silver, Strong, Perini, 200).  I am usually not focused on details but more on the feelings and opinions of those involved.

     While reading the description of the Understanding Learners, I could relate to one trait described. I enjoy intellectual challenges and often ask my study group for a few quiet minutes so that I can think things through on my own.  The remainder of the description for this learning style did not apply to me. Organization does not come naturally to me.  I have to put forth a very conscience effort to keep my professional and personal life orderly.

     Self-Expressive learners had a description that listed more traits that are evident in my learning style.  I tend to be very flexible, imaginative and, being an antique collector, I notice the beauty and the aesthetic value of things.  My work is very scattered and I am always working on several tasks at a time.  This description seemed very close to my personality, however, I felt that the emotional and sensitive traits that seem to drive most of my ambitions and interests, should be prominent in the description of my learning style.

     After reading about the tendencies of Interpersonal Learners, I believed I found the style that portrays my learning style most accurately.  I am an extremely emotional person who struggles with trying to separate professional experiences from personal ones.  My most effective learning takes place when I can relate the material to my own experience.  I recently enrolled in a masters level psychology course at Rutgers University.  The professor was the head of the department of psychology for the university and I had not been a student for almost ten years prior to this experience.  Needless to say, the course was very intense for me.  Relating specific experiences from my classroom to the material and theories was the only way I could retain all of the information.  For each new concept I would have to clarify the meaning by relating it to my own experiences.

My emotional involvement in my career is the driving force.  Throughout the course of the year I become very connected with my students and their families.  If a family member expresses any hostilities towards me, which happens often in my inner city environment, I take their feelings very seriously and personally.  After reading this description, I thought it represented my style precisely.

     I engaged in the inventory descriptions anxious to determine if my assumptions were correct.  The scores clearly state that I was on target.  For the style I thought was the most opposite of mine, I received a very low score of 20 and my prediction for my dominant style was equally accurate with a high score of 89.